Chapter 6: Home

I had been knocked out a few times, and every time when I came too, it was with a rush of adrenaline, my mind still in the fight that I had obviously lost. This time was different however, there was no racing heart, no blind rage, just the serenity of the void. I knew I was going back to a body laid out on the ground, covered in bruises and suffering from broken ribs and most likely a little internal bleeding, but here in the void it was calm. I didn’t bother calling up my skills, they could wait until the experience orb in the distance glowed bright enough to fill them all, even if I did want to pour everything I had into endurance.

ENDURANCE: (NOVICE) RANK UP (JOURNEYMAN)

Well, I’ll be damned, I didn’t know I could do that. The way thoughts controlled the void, made me sure I was inside my subconscious and before I could allow myself to go down that deep dark conundrum of a well, I dismissed the void.

“We should be using the Shaman’s potions.” A male voice spoke in a reserved and stern tone.

“Are you an expert in chemistry, first aid and herbology?” I recognised Berlioz’s smart-ass tone. “No? Because I fucking am.”

Was my foul language and sarcastic personality rubbing off on him. No, I think he was just a dick to begin with, god I love that guy.

“You’ve been spoon feeding him for hours now.” A female voice, delicate yet strong, could it be Kali. “Are you sure that fruit is working?”

I couldn’t open my eyes, and it frustrated me beyond belief. My Hud was there, I could see my almost empty bars and then I realised, the flashing green bar was a paralysis debuff, probably due to the pears healing my body. I wouldn’t be able to move until the red bar was full. At least it was rapidly refilling.

“I told you; he did the same when he found me.” Berlioz stroked behind my ear.

The reserved voice spoke again. “Why would this round eared elf risk his life for us?”

“He’s a human, they’re new to the system and have no idea about anything.” Berlioz forced more of the mushed-up healing pear down my throat. “He’s as fresh as a newly spawned cub but as wise as an elder, and to top it all off he owns the level one hundred zone of this biome.”

“There’s no way.” Kali said dismissively. “He struggled to kill the Shaman, and you think we would believe that he took down the strongest area boss in this system forsaken rain forest.”

I watched my bar fill while Berlioz explained my exploits and tactics. The two Panthera that stood by my side, refused to believe the benefits we had gained from experience grinding and skill ranking at first but soon enough, they accepted that with our overpowered gear and the help of our friendly neighbourhood spider god, the unbelievable gains might have been possible.

“Just look at his armour, not a scratch on it.” Berlioz said. “And these spears can slice through wood like it’s a slime.”

My eyes finally opened and a croaked out. “Sap.”

My stamina bar was bottomed out causing my entire body to ache with the attempt of motion. Worse than the pain was the exhaustion that threatened to force me back into a state of unconsciousness.

“What’s that Oscar?” asked Berlioz coming in close.

It took everything I had to reply. “Dread wood sap, stamina recovery.”

“Got it. Whitey look after him.”

Kali took my hand and said. “I will.” Stroking my hand with the soft pads of her paws she turned to Chef. “Can you see to stripes. The fruit obviously works, and he looks like he’s suffering.”

Chef nodded before walking over to the cot next to mine. Copying Berlioz’s actions, he mushed a few healing pears into pulp and forced it down the tiger’s throat.

“Paws.” I whispered, struggling to breath. “Bandage.”

“I think he wants you to cover his damaged paws in the fruit pulp.” Translated Kali.

Chef spoke up, his reserved voice flavoured with an uplifting excitement. “I just got two skills for feeding him the pulp, Berlioz was right.”

“It still feels weird being able to speak after so long.” Said Kali. “And saying Berlioz’s name makes me want one.”

“The human called you Kali earlier, maybe you already have one.” Remarked Chef, while he rubbed the pulp into the tiger’s paw tips. “hmm, the first aid skill as well. How peculiar.”

“Another skill?”

“Yes, this fruit must be rare or above to give three skills from their use.”

“Hey grumpy.” Called Berlioz, hurrying to my side. “Why are you giving stripes a paw massage?”

“They pulled out his claws after he help you escape and only Kali and I were allowed out of confinement.” He wrapped the paws with fresh bandages. “I cannot complain however, you did manage to free us after all.”

“You’re damn right I did.” Berlioz scraped some sap off of his dagger with a wooden spoon and forced it in my mouth and turned to Kali. “Did Oscar give you a name?”

“He did and I think he called grump over there Chef or something.” Replied the white lioness.

“What does Chef mean?” asked Berlioz still forcing the gloopy sap into my mouth.

The lioness shrugged. “What about Kali, or Berlioz?”

“From my understanding.” Distracted by the conversation Berlioz missed my mouth and blocked one of my nostrils with the sticky substance. “It was a character in a fable that his little brother enjoyed. Maybe your names are from similar origins.”

“Kali is a warrior god.” I said finally feeling myself again. “And Chef is a title for someone who cooks for a living.”

“I was doing that job for the last couple of days, its rather therapeutic.” Mentioned Chef, returning from the tiger’s sleeping side.

I sat up. “I was going to call the tiger Lachhiman or just Lachi for short.”

“What’s a Tiger?” asked Kali.

“Apparently we all look like different species of monster from his world.” Answered Berlioz.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “There’s no monsters where I come from, just animals.”

“Yeah, and they all have brains.”

“What’s a brain?” asked Lachi coming too.

Berlioz stifled a laugh. “It’s this big ball of wet flesh that acts like a core.”

“Didn’t you see the brain of the big fucker you killed after you threw a spear through his head.” I said.

“Hang on.” Berlioz ran out of the tent and a moment later his voice could be heard loudly pronouncing. “Oh, Elder’s tail. That’s fucking disgusting.”

After a short demonstration of what an orc brain looked like by Berlioz, the four Panthera and I got to discussing our situation. It turned out that we were in the middle of a zone dominated by ants. The orcs had gotten lost searching for the area boss of a level forty zone that was inhabited by a mixture of monsters, that Kali described poorly, and ended up trapped in what they believed to be the level ninety zone. Chef explained that the orcs were on edge for days regardless of the fact that no ants had been seen since the Shaman activated something called a settlement stone.

“Okay, so where do we find this stone?” I asked looking to Chef.

It was Kali that answered. “I’ve seen it in the Shaman’s tent. I was the only one of us allowed in there to serve the food that Chef prepared.

“Do you think it works like my authority?” I asked looking at Berlioz.

He shrugged. “Fuck if I know.”

“Why do you speak like this?” asked Lachi. “So much disrespect to the one that saved us.”

Berlioz’s muzzle scrunched up in offence. “What about me, I saved you all along side him.”

“You also risked getting us all killed when you fled.” Jibed Kali.

Chef nodded. “She has a point.”

“Fuck this.” Said Berlioz, throwing his arms up and storming out. “Oscar if you need me, I’ll be looting the dead orcs.” As he left, we could hear him loudly monologuing. “I saved everyone, and this is the thanks I get. None of you even praised me for how valiant I looked as I fought the berserker. Oh look, I killed that guy there too. You’re welcome by the way. Hey how many orcs did you kill…”

He continued shouting out and berating the Panthera around him, while I stood and slipped on my clothes. By the time I was dressed and had deposited my reclaimed weapons into their pouches, my little cat bro had either run out of steam or found something more interesting than trying to guilt trip his people into respecting him. I left him to his own devices and Kali Joined me in the Shaman’s tent while Chef saw to lighting a fire under the large cast iron cauldron in the centre of the camp.

“It’s just over there.” Kali said, pointing at a fist sized stone.

The stone sat atop a strange table, next to a cot adorned with the furs of unimaginable creatures. Before I got carried away trying to analyse each fur, I turned my sights on the settlement stone. On closer inspection the stone was covered in runic symbols that I had no way of deciphering and just as I was about to put the thing in my pocket the system notified me.

Would you like to claim this settlement?

I thought no and received another prompt.

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Would you like to reset this settlement stone?

I thought no, again and when I tried to place the stone in my pocket, a resistant force pushed back. Giving up I thought about resetting the settlement and the stone slipped easily in my pocket.

Warning: settlement zone will expire in three hours.

“I just fucked up.” I said under my breath. “Kali, we need to go.”

“What happened?”

“I might have just definitely umm, revoked the safety of this place.”

“We need to leave.” Kali’s eyes went wide, and she practically vibrated in panic.

I took her paws in my hands and spoke softly. “I’m sorry, I should have been clear; we have three hours to get going.”

“What’s wrong with you.” She took a second to calm down. “Three hours is plenty of time, there’s enchanted travel packs in the storage tent, we should be able to store most of the stuff here, although we might have to leave some of the tents behind.”

“Did you say enchanted?” My mouth practically watered at the thought of disassembling a magical item.

Kali must have noticed the crazed look in my eyes, as she asked. “Are you okay?”

I did my best to hide my excitement. “Yeah, I just never really used anything magical before.”

“Your armour is impervious to slashing and piercing damage and has pockets that can store an entire spear.”

“I didn’t really consider that magic, although my mana bar did go down while I was crafting it. huh, I guess I’ve already been using magic all this time.” I scratched my head. “Shall we get to work?”

“I’ll show you to the storage tent and we can make a plan with the boys.”

We hurried to the storage tent, which was not as large or as organised as I had expected. Where the shaman’s tent was tall and spacious, this tent was squat and cramped, filled with nothing but discarded bags. On inspection the bags looked empty but if there was magic involved, they could be just like my dimensional reed pouches. While I reached a hand into one of the bags Kali returned with Berlioz, Chef and Lachi. I smiled as I looked at the ragtag team of wild cats and sniggered.

“Thunder cats ho.” I cheered raising an arm.

They all stared at me, while the tent filled with an awkward silence.

“Thunder, what who?” Queried a confused Berlioz.

I sighed. “It’s an earth thing. anyone over thirty would get it.”

“Is that how old you are?” asked Chef.

Lachi whispered to Berlioz. “Is that old or young for a human?”

“How the fuck should I know.” Replied Berlioz.

“Do we have time for this?” Asked Kali.

“No, No we don’t.” I sighed again completely deflated, “I’ll cut to the chase. We have three hours before this place is threatened by giant acid spitting ants.”

“They spit acid now?” Kali interrupted. “The ones we came across just had really sharp mandibles.”

“So that’s even more concerning.” I said, realizing an ant queen could probably spawn any kind of ant she pleased. “Regardless, we have three hours to organise, pack up anything valuable and get back to my oasis. Kali and Berlioz, I want you to gather up the Panthera and have them loot everything of worth and bring to the centre of the camp. Me and Lachi are going to hand out the bags and Chef you’ve got the most important job of all.” I handed him a pouch filled with strips of iron hide boar meat. “I want you to fire up that pot and cook this meat in a mixture of tree sap and healing pear pulp. once everything is packed, we’ll eat and head out.” I put my hand in the centre, but they didn’t get it. “you’re supposed to put your paws over my hand.”

“Why?” Chef asked.

Berlioz shrugged. “Probably an earth thing.”

“I’ll do it.” said Lachi, pressing his moist bandages over my hand.

I knew it was just pear juice, but it ruined the moment. “Fuck it lets go.”

At my personally disappointing call to action Berlioz marched out of the tent with Chef and Kali by his side calling out. “Right, you bunch of tail licking morons, its time to work.”

Kali took over command of the Panthera shortly after Berlioz’s insensitive tirade with a firm yet respectful listing of responsibilities. While the three of them got to work outside, I continued inspecting the bags inside the storage tent. With my arm elbow deep inside another empty pack I caught Lachi looking at me quizzically.

“What is it?” I queried, feeling like I was missing something.

Lachi scratched the back of his head, wincing at the pain of his missing claws. “Why are you reaching into the bag?”

“To check if there’s anything inside.” I was definitely missing something.

Lachi’s brows furrowed. “But it’s a bag of holding.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“You’re literally covered in them.” The tiger took in the sight of my bandolier. “have you been reaching into those pouches whenever you need something.”

“That tends to be how it works, yeah.”

“Have you just been ignoring your Hud?”

The bag icon sat at the right corner of my Hud, and I selected it. everything I had, in every reed pouch and pocket on my person was displayed in opaque text before my eyes. All of it laid out and labelled in order of container size going smallest to largest. I even saw the iron hide droppings and as it turned out the healing pears were actually called vitalaberries. Scrolling down I saw that the bag of holding was empty and when I dropped it the label disappeared.

Lachi watched the range of emotions wash across my face and spoke with vicarious excitement. “Now think about withdrawing a certain item.”

I thought about withdrawing my mantis blade Machetes and instantly they appeared in either hand. “Are you kidding me.”

“Didn’t Berlioz tell you?” Lachi chuckled.

I huffed. “No, no he did not.”

I was going to have to get some sweet pay back against my little cat bro but that could wait until we were home. After checking every bag, we found that only three of them had anything inside. One held an assortment of clubs, crossbows and bolts while the other two contained various crafting materials and tools. That coupled with everything else that was scattered around the camp, we would have a pretty good chance at building a comfortable life back at the oasis. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the sudden amount of people I had just taken responsibility for so when it came time to hand out the bags, I stayed inside the tent passing them to Lachi who in turn handed them out to the waiting Panthera.

We chatted amiably while handing out the bags and I found out that Lachi and his people had been in captivity for just under ten cycles, which I understood to be closer to elven years. Every one of the Panthera present were of similar ages when they were taken and none of them were over level five, meaning that I was now responsible for protecting thirty teenagers that were under skilled and under levelled. My anxiety rose with every face I saw passing by the open tent flap and it was only when I reached to my wrist that I realised that Anansi wasn’t with me.

“Where’s Anansi?” I asked dropping the bag I was holding.

“Who’s that?” Lachi asked picking it up and handing it to a waiting panther.

“My spider, he pulled you away when the berserker came out.”

“Oh, that thing.” Lachi paused to scan the tree line. “There he is. I think he’s sleeping.”

My heartbeat lessened and I picked up one of the last bags, shrugging it on I handed another to Lachi, and he did the same. We exited the empty tent to the sight of Panthera hard at work. They ferried kitchen ware, furniture and bedclothes, alongside enough armour and weapons to field a small army. When I thought about the fact that the entire camp consisted of orc scouts, bar the two leaders, I realised that this was just the forward party and there was likely to be more on the way. I didn’t voice my concerns, instead I filled my bag with armour and joined Chef at the cooking pot.

“That smells amazing.” I said taking in the stew that filled the cauldron.

Chef smiled at my compliment. “I think its almost done.”

I had a sudden thought and withdrew some of the boar droppings I had. “pop these in, they have damage resistant properties.”

He took them and looked them over. “you know they kind of look like.”

“Yeah, don’t think about it.” I didn’t let him finish his thought.

He popped them in and a minute later he went wide eyed. “I just got the alchemy skill.”

“I don’t think I have that one.” I said, wondering how alchemy and chemistry differed.

When everything was done and all that was left was to eat our fill, pack up the cauldron and leave, I joined the four named Panthera while they ate. As they shovelled the sweet stew into their mouths, the joy on their faces showed that it was the first nutritious meal they had enjoyed since being enslaved. It hurt to think of their treatment at such a young age and I worried that they would just fall into a subservient relationship with me once we got to the oasis. After all they were going to be trapped inside my authority, surrounded by high levelled monsters and under the command of a creature that looked more like an orc than a Panthera.

“I want, you guys to be in command.” I said, between sips of stew.

Berlioz looked over with a raised eyebrow. “We can tell everyone else what to do, but we still need your leadership.”

“I’m not a Panthera.”

“You sure execute a drop attack like one.” Commented Lachi.

Chef eyed a little brown ball on his spoon. “What are you worried about?”

“You’ve all been under the thumb of the orcs for so long, only to be put under the control of another person.” It came out wrong, but I wasn’t thinking straight.

Kali shook her head. “You’ve already proven that you would put yourself in harm’s way for our safety.” She nudged Berlioz. “And if you can tolerate this fool, then you’re going to love the rest of us.”

“Ok, just let me get my head around it all first.” I stood and looked up at Anansi’s sleeping form. “Will you guys speak for me, until I’m ready?”

“Yes.” They said together.

Then Berlioz crunched a boar dropping and said. “Whatever these little balls are they’re amazing.”

Chef burst out laughing and I looked at my new family with pride. I swore to myself to protect Berlioz with everything I had and now, I extended that pledge to his people, my people. I might not have been a Panthera, but I was going to dedicate my zone to raising them up to be able to take on any challenge that faced them. The first step however was making it home. Once we had finished eating, I spooned the rest of the stew into an empty reed pouch and called up to Anansi.

“Hey buddy, it’s time to go.”

The spider let down a web and made slowly made his way down to me. once he joined me my stomach felt as though it had emptied, and I realised that he hadn’t actually consumed any cores or biomass since he finished the mantis. I almost searched my pockets for the boar cores I was carrying when I remembered I could summon one to my hand. At its presence Anansi spun on my wrist and the core was literally inhaled by him. It wasn’t disgust that I felt from him, it was more a sense of blandness, like having a meal too many times causing it to lose its flavour.

“I’m sorry buddy, we’ll find something new for you to eat soon.” I stroked his back. “We haven’t gone past the swamp lands yet and there’s bound to be something strong out there. Once we get everyone settled, we’ll have a look, ok.”

When everyone climbed up the nearest tree, it became apparent that Lachi couldn’t climb due to his missing claws. It was easy enough to solve by handing him a pair of mantis daggers, but I could see that he felt like a burden as I waited for him to get used to them. The journey was going to be a long one with the amount of us traveling together, but the trees were safe and with the mountain in the distance as our guide home, there was no questioning that all of us would make it there safely.

I stayed at the back with Lachi and allowed Berlioz to lead his people home. The tiger-like Panthera was quite the whole way. It worried me to think of the torture he had been through for helping Berlioz escape and I think his mind was caught up in the changes his life would meet now that he had been declawed, but honestly, he swung from vine to vine and leapt from branch to branch with more grace than any of the other Panthera ahead of us. I was sure that if he accepted his position as a leader, he would overcome his history and teach the rest of his people to do the same.

I was actually surprised when the sound of rushing water hit my ears. We had made it home without any incidents, the ants we passed over, paid us no mind and there was no sign of the evil root, which lead me to believe its main body was somewhere to the north-west of the oasis. Thinking about the root made me panic for the Panthera’s safety but when I heard the cries of joy ahead my anxiety was washed away. When I caught up to the group, I found them all bathing in the waterfall’s basin, and I looked forward to jumping in myself but first I had to organise the leaders of this new family of mine.

“Hold up, bud.” I said to Berlioz.

He stopped undressing and turned to me. “C’mon everyone’s already in there, five minutes and we can chat.” He actually gave me the puss in boots eyes. “Please, Oscar.”

“Fuck it.” I said with a smile. “Take your time.”

While the Panthera celebrated their first moments of freedom with an impromptu pool party, located the vampiric root I had left behind and stowed it away in my pocket, just in case one of them tripped and gave it a feast, After that, I saw to the iron hide piglets. The two of them were resting by the trees and when I approached, they looked up at me in fear. Revealing a hand full of vitalaberries made their cowering forms quiver with hungry anticipation. I pushed down on Pepper’s back and told her to sit before feeding her from my palm and stroked her while she ate. Doing the same for George, I found myself wanting to protect the little murder pigs. I just hoped they would forget that I had murdered their parents.

While I watched Berlioz splashing about as close to Kali as Pantherianly possible, I set up the large cauldron and started a fire. They were going to be starving after all that play and it might be a waste of the healing pears, but I wanted to replicate the recipe that gained Chef the alchemy skill. While I cooked, I allowed my thoughts to drift. I felt proud of myself for saving these wonderful creatures, and although I had chosen a life of solitude back on earth, I welcomed the presents of the Panthera.

Congratulations, you have successfully brewed iron skin potion (poor) and have gained the following: Alchemy

I had almost forgotten about the skill while I stirred the pot, enjoying the sight of the playful cats. There were so many of them and we may have had the space, but we seriously lacked the infostructure. With Berlioz and I being the only expert carpenters we sure had our work cut out for us, although, I figured if we were just going for a few expert skills, there was no reason we couldn’t have a little boar pinata party and get things built much faster.